Galanthus April 2016

[Maggi Young]

Lovely to see your flowers coming out, Leena - and your  photos, are, as ever,  beautiful.

[Leena]

Thanks Maggi, this is the best time!

The quantity of green on the outers varies from year to year but it almost never completely fails to perform.  It also bulks-up in fits and starts with a bumper year where one bulb becomes around 10 bulbs every so often.

Thanks Alan.

[Leena]

Couple of more pictures.
When 'Rosemary Burnham' came up in March I thought what a small snowdrop, but it has grown a lot since then and now it looks like this.
In the second picture there is 'Ray Cobb'. I have read that it could be difficult to grow but I planted one bulb in summer 2013 and in three years it has grown to this.
Couple of weeks ago I wrote here that my 'Lady Elphinstone has green marks in the petals this year, and at first it did, but now the marks have changed to more yellow like it was last year.

[Gabriela]

How wonderful Leena! Spring at last! 

[Alan_b]

I wonder if Leena, as someone who is growing named snowdrop cultivars,  is the most northerly galanthophile?

[johnstephen29]

Leena might be Alan, but what about Hoy in Norway? Does he grow galanthus? I sent him some seeds awhile back, I wonder how he got on with them.

[Maggi Young]

Not sure he'd admit to being a galanthophile, John - he's a sensible chap .... but I think Leena is further north anyway!

[Leena]

I may be most northerly galanthophile (I don't know if I have enough of cultivars to be a true galanthophile) here in this forum, but I know two persons here in Finland who have a lot more named cultivars than I do (and they are also silent members of SRGC  , I'm just more talkative), they grow snowdrops also in south of Finland, and then there are many more who have less named cultivars than me, one of them is growing snowdrops in Tampere which is 200 km north from my place. Of course I don't know everyone, just people from Finnish gardening forum.
I became attracted to snowdrops first because they are the first flowers in the spring, then I wanted to have different kinds, and to find out which ones would be best to grow here and could cope with sometimes long and snowy winter, sometimes cold without much snow.

All my snowdrops are now up and most are flowering, but 'Fieldgate Forte' has just only now come up a week ago, and I was sure I had lost 'Cicely Hall', but today I saw it peaking from the ground. What a relief, I really liked it last year.
The only snowdrop I haven't managed to grow is 'Barnes'. I have tried it now twice, once from dormant bulb in September and it never came up, and now last spring I got two bulbs of it in-the-green, and planted them in two separate places, and neither one has come up, not in December before the winter, and not now.

[Leena]

Not sure he'd admit to being a galanthophile, John - he's a sensible chap .... but I think Leena is further north anyway!

My climate is colder than Hoy's. 

[Hoy]

Leena might be Alan, but what about Hoy in Norway? Does he grow galanthus? I sent him some seeds awhile back, I wonder how he got on with them.

John, i am growing galanthus but I don't collect names So Maggi is right! I do try to get different forms though and hope for a little variation among my plants. Haven't seen any germination of your seed yet but it is still hope.

Galanthus has been grown in Norway at least since 1779 and is grown far north - more than 70^oN (Vardø and Karasjokk).

The season is over in my garden. Here are two pics form March 10 (don't know the names):

 

I don't know exactly where Leena lives but the climate there is much colder than here, especially in winter.

[johnw]

What an interesting day we've had! Drove to Truro, Nova Scotia to meet up with Bernard Jackson and Darwin Carr at the rock garden of Dalhousie Unversity's Truro Campus to check out a reported snowdrop wood north of Truro.  A one-way 00 mile trip, we feared we'd never find the site, we did in but a few moments upon arrival.  A wonderful glade with small streams running every which way through some of the richest moist brown soil I've seen in this province.  Most of the Galanthus were nivalis doubles (still bravely hanging on) and while yes there were large patches of singles (mostly over)  throughout the woods the largest swathes of seedlings seemed to be concentrated round the double patchs. Now why would that be? Found one nice long-flowered nivalis.

Huge drifts of Crocus tommasinianus seedlings, thousands upon thousands of them but only a few flowers left.  Scilla siberica as you might expect but numerous seedlings of Narcissus really surprised us.

johnw

1 single G. nivalis
2 double G. nivalis
3.   Galanthus & Leucojum, latter in stream
4. C. tommasinianus

[johnw]

What really stood out were the Leucojum vernum, they too were everywhere even growing in the streams.  A few had green markings  - very rare here    - and otherwise nothing notable until I happen to venture well into the woods on the opposite site of the road to see more nivalis. Something caught my eye in the distance, a lusty clump of vernum which I thought might be worth a look. Should or shouldn't I venture on with the others waiting with the truck running.  I should and they were worth it, a number of double ones and even one with fused ovaries and extra large flower.

The other big surprise was back at the Truro Campus where Darwin pointed out a bed of elwesii. He bought a few bulbs 15 years ago and they had spread everywhere throughout a sandy bed. They were even under dense spreading junipers, growing and seedling in the total darkeness.  I have never seen elwesii seed like that before, they were rampant.  I trust Ian Christie saw them when he visited 2 years ago. 

1. Leucojum vernum find.
2. L. split ovary double-flower
3. Heaths still loking find in Truro
4. typical elwesii seedling
5. more elwesii seedlings hanging on in a bit of shade.

The day ended with a memorable horticultural Thai meal of Khanom Jeen garnished with Boesenbergia rotunda.

What a day.

johnw

[Leena]

I don't know exactly where Leena lives but the climate there is much colder than here, especially in winter.

The latitude where I live is about little over 60°, I think, but winters can be quite cold. This year the coldest week in January it was between -20 and -28°C, but mostly it is not so cold, and even now last night was  still -5°C, but days are warmer and the ground is not frozen any more. It always amazes me how snowdrops can come up from frozen ground.

Hoy, beautiful snowdrops!

John,  you had a great day, and I like especially your L.vernum finds. Has there been houses in the past where the snowdrops and Leucojum have escaped or why are they growing in the woods?

[Alan_b]

I may be most northerly galanthophile (I don't know if I have enough of cultivars to be a true galanthophile) here in this forum, but I know two persons here in Finland who have a lot more named cultivars than I do (and they are also silent members of SRGC  , I'm just more talkative)....

Well 'Green Light' has not been widely distributed so I bet you have the most northerly example of that particular snowdrop.

I'm surprised that Barnes has proved quite so difficult.  One might imagine that it would flower and then fail to survive the winter but not to appear at all after being planted in the green seems just wrong.  Slugs and snails will attack autumn-flowering snowdrops here in the UK; could that be your problem?   

[Brian Ellis]

... even one with fused ovaries and extra large flower.

What fun that one is, and what a day indeed!